26 October 2008

Despite not being in my native New England surrounded by maple tree reds, oranges, and golds, or even being in the countryside at all, I've been trying to take advantage of the fall colors here in Montmartre.

Although I may grumble about the tourists constantly walking head up and tripping regular pedestrians while trying to get the best photo, I secretly never tire of looking up at the Sacré Coeur myself. With the fall light through the slowing browning chesnut trees, you can see why.

And lastly, the best way to get in the fall spirit, of course, is to cook fall food and for me that means getting creative with my CSA. A couple Sundays ago, I mentioned an apple-pear pie in passing without giving any sort of recipe (what a tease)! This week, as I said in my last post, pears made another appearance in our basket, and D. immediately began lobbying for the pie. Luckily, after spending Friday and Saturday in London (more on that soon!), I was ready to relax around the house today peeling and coreing fruit. Next week I'm in a 6-day workshop on Bérénice by Racine. I'll see if I can post, but until then, eat up!

Mix all the ingredients (except the butter and cinnamon sugar) in a large bowl. Stir well. Prepare your favorite homemade or store-bought pie crust (my simple butter-free crust). Pour the ingredients into the bottom crust. Dot with butter and cover with second crust. Brush the crust with a little milk and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mix. Cut slits for the steam to escape and cook at 375F/190C for about 1 hour, until the juice is bubbling over (don't forget to put a cookie sheet on the shelf underneath to catch the drips). Cool and serve.

I'm entering this post in the World Food Day Thanksgiving Event because I think it is appropriately seasonal and festive. I love how Thanksgiving brings together family and good food with seasonal ingredients: good for the soul, the body and the Earth. I am extremely thankful for my family, both immediate and extended. I couldn't ask to be part of a better, more supportive, wonderful group of weirdos.

Well this whole weekend has been spent in bed with a bad cold (which I probably came down with while baking almond/pine-nut cookies with the six-year-old I baby-sit for who was sick and kept licking her fingers and sticking them back in the batter…). Anyhow, I’ve been more into chicken soup and ginger, honey, lemon tea than fancy creations and Sunday baking. Still, I promised these Apple-Walnut Muffins and lucky for you, the pictures were already taken so I can post them from under my warm comforter!

We got a big bag of apples in the CSA both last week and the week before, and I made a few batches of these muffins (adapted from the Joy of Cooking). I also made some by combining this recipe with the recipe for Brown Sugar Muffins that I posted about earlier this year, and I believe the results would have been delicious had I not forgotten to add an important ingredient… Can you tell I’ve been a bit stressed lately?

This week, the fruit from the CSA is pears, which I’m sure would be good in these muffins too, but D. is rooting for pie. My body, on the other hand, is rooting for more time spent in bed, so we will see.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Stir in the apples and set aside for 10 minutes. This allows the apples to render their juices with the sugar and eggs and makes for moist muffins.

In the meantime, in a separate bowl whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt). Melt the butter on the stove and chop the walnuts.

Once the apple mixture is done sitting, stir in the melted butter and walnuts. Add the flour mixture and fold in until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Be careful not to overmix. Pour batter into greased (or lined) muffin cups and bake 14-16 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean. Let sit 3-5 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan and letting cool on a cooling rack, or eating immediately!

16 October 2008

Just a quick reminder that today is World Food Day! I entered my coq au vin into the event at the end of last month and today you can see the round up of delicious dishes here. There are a number of participants and some pretty amazing, hunger-stopping recipes.

When I opened it, I was jumping up and down like a 3-year-old at Christmas and (after calling my parents) immediately started making plans to use it. I had a piece of pork for roasting that I had got on sale at the supermarket and way too many apples from the CSA, so I thought I might try putting the two together. I rolled the roast in sea salt, pepper, cinnamon and ground coriander. Melted some butter in my wonderful casserole and browned the pork on all sides. Then I turned off the heat, added a few shallots and some juniper berries (which I bought for my coq au vin), covered and stuck the whole thing in the oven for about 1 hour. This is the first time I've had a pot that goes on the stove and in the oven!

While it was cooking, I peeled, cored and quartered 8 apples and cooked them on the stove in butter and cinnamon before adding them to the casserole in the oven about 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time. When it was done, I took the roast and apples out of the casserole so D. could cut the roast, and stuck my super casserole back on the stove to make gravy. I deglazed with white wine, scraped up all the roast and caramelized shallot bits and then added veggie stock and flour, cooked it down and poured it over the roast. Best birthday ever!

After last Sunday's croissants (let someone else do the baking) you all are going to think I spend my weekends partying and waking up bleary-eyed. And why not, after all? But the truth is I was intending to write to you about some yummy moist apple-walnut muffins today (next week - I promise!) but last night D. threw a party for my birthday, which was a few days ago, and made a delicious punch from a secret recipe that I can attest included rum - lots of it! A bunch of people came and they brought presents and wine and other goodies, including two wonderful food-related gifts:

Book about exotic ingredients, their properties and simple recipes in which to use them.

08 October 2008

Six or seven years ago, when my parents had just moved, my father participated in a radio program called Desert Island Discs, the central PA version of a long-running BBC radio show. For a half an hour, the host interviewed local personalities (as the new editor of the regional newspaper, my father was considered a bit of local celebrity) and asked them, if you were going to be stranded on a desert island, what 6 (or was it 8?) albums would you bring with you. Sure, this is outdated, come on, albums?? Don't you mean cds? And wouldn't you just bring your ipod (I mean, I don't have one, but if I was going to be stranded on a desert island, who knows...)?

05 October 2008

This week there will surely be baking in Hopie's Kitchen, possibly a reprise of the Zucchini Bread as there was loads of zucchini in Friday's CSA basket again, and something with apples...mmmm. But this Sunday I decided to let someone else do the baking and, living in Paris, there are plenty of good bakers around to pick up the slack.

After a Saturday night birthday party for a friend, and numerous servings of spiked punch, I decided to do Sunday the traditional French way. I slept in, rolled out of bed around 11am, threw on some clothes and headed around the corner to the best neighborhood boulangerie. Now, I'm not claiming that it's the best boulangerie ever, or in Paris; it's not famous or anything. It's just one of many wonderful places to get amazing bread and patisseries in the time it takes to say "bonjour" and "bon dimanche."

Later, browsing through Joy of Cooking for particular recipe, I got distracted by a paragraph about croissants. It's like the dictionary for me: you look up a regular old word and end up being seduced by finifugal and abluvion, and then you're done for. But that's another story. According to the Joy of Cooking, although popularized by the French, croissants were actually invented in Hungary. In 1686 Hungarian bakers, who were working through the night to prepared the morning's pastries, heard Turkish invaders tunnelling under the city. If it weren't for the bakers, it would have been a massacre, but thanks to their warning, the Hungarian army had enough time to rally and defeat the invaders. As a thank you, the government mandated the bakers to create a pastry in the shape of the crescent on the Turkish flag, so everyone could nibble on the symbol of their defeat!

Still, no one can argue that the French know how to do pastries. So this morning with buttery croissants still warm from the oven, hot tea and coffee for proper croissant-dipping, and despite the dismal, rainy weather, I remembered why I love living in Paris.

02 October 2008

En français ici.This weekend was beautiful fall weather and I spent it at the Festival America, a North American literary festival where I crossed paths with Daniel Handler and all that came out of my mouth were unintelligible sounds. It was only after he was gone that I managed to sputter (to the confused people I was with), "that, that guy is Daniel Handler!!" "Who??", they replied. "Daniel Handler!" I managed, "also known as Lemony Snicket!" Some people get tongue-tied around movie stars. I get tongue-tied around authors. To each his own... But after the sun and excitement, the days have started to get gray and damp here in Paris and this afternoon's downpour confirmed that it is definitely time for soup. (What's that? My story's not at all related to soup? Alright, alright, just scroll down to the recipe if you're going to be like that ;-))

Luckily, I received a beautiful butternut squash in my basket of fruits and veggies from the CSA this week.

Besides the squash, there was lettuce, grapes (from a partner vineyard) and little onions. I also received a very strange-looking long white radish, something I've never cooked with before and these beans I've never cooked with before either. I put the two of them into a stir-fry with some other veggies, which turned out well for the radish and not so well for the beans, which didn't really get cooked right. What would you guys do with those kinds of beans? I don't even know what kind they are, but they're pretty !

Back to my friend the butternut... I was very happy to see him as I've been drooling over squash/pumpkin soup recipes for the past week or two (yes, it's in the air!). I decided to try out one that I saw on a blog I've started to read recently : A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit written by Sylvie, a German woman, living in the UK. I loved her idea of putting together butternut squash and roasted red pepper, two delicious ingredients.

I roasted the red peppers (I used 2 instead of one) along with the butternut squash. I took them out after about 35-40 minutes and let the squash roast the whole hour while I prepared the rest of the soup. I also, borrowed an idea from My Easy Cooking (where Nina has posted another interesting butternut soup recipe) and let the onions caramelize for a while.

I served the soup with a dollop of crème fraiche and parsley garnish. It had so much flavor! I'll definitely make this again if I get my hands on another butternut this season. You can find the original recipe here.